Hot off a legal victory handing him control of the government’s top consumer watchdog, President Donald Trump is moving rapidly to nominate a permanent director to rein in the agency’s reach.

A U.S. District Court judge in Washington on Tuesday said the administration had the right to install White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Judge Timothy Kelly denied a request by CFPB Deputy Director Leandra English, who also claims to hold the top job, to block Mulvaney from taking the post. Her lawyer said the case isn’t over.

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For now, the ruling puts a halt to a chaotic series of events set in motion Friday, when former CFPB Director Richard Cordray abruptly resigned. It also moves the White House a step closer to curbing the power of the independent agency, which since its inception has bedeviled banks, credit card issuers, and other financial companies. In the process it has cheered wronged consumers, collecting $12 billion in penalties and recoveries on their behalf.

With the legal skirmish quieted, Trump is close to placing a permanent leader at the agency, a senior administration official told POLITICO. The president’s short list of candidates includes House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), George Mason University law professor Todd Zywicki, and former acting Comptroller of the Currency Keith Noreika. All are fierce critics of the bureau, which they have accused of overstepping its authority and running roughshod over industry.

Other rumored candidates, including Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.), former Rep. Randy Neugebauer of Texas, Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.), lawyer Jerry Buckley of Buckley Sandler, former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, and Mark Calabria, chief economist to Vice President Mike Pence, are not in the running, the official said.

A nominee could be chosen in the next couple of weeks and begin the vetting process, the official said. An announcement could come by early January.

“We are moving very quickly,” the official said. “We’ve had several names of people under consideration. But because we didn’t know exactly when Director Cordray was going to step down we couldn’t begin the clearance process.”

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Any administration pick is likely to enrage consumer advocates and civil rights groups, who have vowed to protect the watchdog agency from Trump and his Wall Street allies. Today, those groups rallied on the CFPB’s doorstep, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who inspired the bureau’s creation with a 2007 essay on risky loans.

“Donald Trump and his administration of mega-rich bankers are trying to tear apart the cop on the beat that defends all of us from people like all of them,” said Ben Wikler, Washington director of MoveOn.org. “This fight starts here and goes until the people trying to tear apart the CFPB are out of office.”

Mulvaney, who once called the bureau a “joke,” told staff on Monday that he had no plans to “burn the place down.” But he did put a 30-day freeze on regulations and hiring. And because the bureau’s power rests with its lone director, he and his successor have authority to revisit existing rules, slow enforcement actions and starve the agency of funding.

“He could end investigations, he could take proposed settlements that involved penalties for violators and change them to slaps on the wrist, and legalize what the bureau thought was unfair conduct,” said Ed Mierzwinski, a senior fellow for U.S. PIRG, a government watchdog.

At risk under a Trump-picked director is the bureau’s public complaint database, which industry groups have called a government-sanctioned Yelp that exposes them to unfair criticism. While the CFPB by law must collect complaint data, it isn’t required to make the information easily available to the public.

Major regulations, including a recent rule governing payday and title lenders, aren’t likely to be rolled back completely but could be revisited, delayed or watered down.

“There are some guardrails around how much damage they can do; rules that were adopted through a lengthy process, with data and studies and findings, can’t just be rolled back,” said Lauren Saunders, associate director of the National Consumer Law Center. “If they don’t have the evidence to back up what they’re trying to do, they’ll be challenged in court.”

More worrisome is that the bureau’s new director will drop lawsuits, such as the one pending against Navient, a student loan servicer, or starve the agency of funding and staff. Regulations governing debt collectors and overdraft fees are in the works and could be delayed or abandoned.

Mulvaney spokesman John Czwartacki did not respond to an interview request and questions, but the senior White House official said any change at the bureau will be targeted.

“Democrats are talking about how he’s going to burn the agency down. You’re not going to see any of that,” the official said. “There are several areas where the bureau has overstepped its authority, it’s well recognized that these are missteps.”

"Ultimately, Trump will make an appointment," Cordray told POLITICO. "They will have to go through a confirmation process, and we won't have somebody who is holding two offices at once.”

Meanwhile, English and Mulvaney continued their dueling. After English sent an email to bureau staff Tuesday morning, Mulvaney fired back.

“Please disregard any email sent by, or instructions you receive from, Ms. English when she is purporting to act as the Acting Director,” Mulvaney told bureau staff. “I apologize for having to send this instruction again. And I feel terrible about you folks being put in this position, as I understand it can be both confusing and disruptive.”